


catastrophe

by ballonlea



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Hiatus, M/M, itaru is a catboy au, more tags to be added as needed, no mankai au, part 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24307837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballonlea/pseuds/ballonlea
Summary: The thing started purring as soon as Chikage held it in his arms, pushing its face into Chikage’s chest and staying there. It was shivering, too, and Chikage would have just gone and dumped it at Hisoka’s apartment if it weren’t for the fact that it was nearly two in the morning, and he knew Hisoka had a roommate that was already annoying enough to deal with during the light of day.It was better to just keep the cat with him for now, honestly.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage, Mikage Hisoka & Utsuki Chikage, Sakuma Sakuya & Utsuki Chikage
Comments: 25
Kudos: 162





	1. compassion

**Author's Note:**

> hello everynyan!!!! special thanks to the ckit discord server for encouraging/enabling me to start writing this after so long of thinking about it.... love you guys xoxo
> 
> i hope you all enjoy this!!! and i hope you stick around for the next chapters, too!! ^__^
> 
> 2/15/2021: this is on hiatus and might not be finished. sorry i lost steam for a3

It rained on the way home.

It wasn’t _supposed_ to rain that night, because if it was, Chikage would have used his car to get to the job site. He would have at least brought an umbrella. He even would have considered forcing someone else to cover for him instead, but of course _he_ would be the one to get caught up in some rain the _one_ time the weather forecast was wrong.

The good part about rain was that it would make washing away bloodstains a lot easier. Dry bloodstains were more annoying to deal with than wet ones, so if they were kept moist like this, he wouldn’t have to worry about it. Or maybe he was just coming up with a bright side because August was always going on about things like that—like _bright sides_ or _hope_ or _blessings in disguises._ Chikage was pretty sure he was trained to think of a bright side before he was trained to knock someone out without killing them, and _that_ was almost lesson one.

The bad part about rain, though, was that it made Chikage have all sorts of moral dilemmas, and one of them was whether or not he should ignore the crying cat that was sitting across from him. He’d ducked into this alleyway for a brief moment, just to wait until the rain lightened up a bit, but now he was faced with a soaking wet cat that was brought into his path by what someone more optimistic than him would call fate. It padded over to him after a few moments of staring and weaved around Chikage’s legs.

He hated cats. _Hated_ them. But he was pretty sure December—

He was pretty sure _Hisoka_ would say this meant that the damn thing liked him, which made this particular moral dilemma even worse. It was a skinny brown cat with eyes a shade of brown that almost looked pink. Both the tips of its ears and the tip of its tail were a lighter tan, and it pawed at Chikage and meowed so pathetically that his first instinct was to gently kick it away from him.

But Hisoka’s voice in the back of his mind stopped that instinct in its tracks, told him that he shouldn’t be mean to cats, and that he should at least try to give it food. The thing had both of its paws on Chikage now, and Chikage huffed and stooped down to pick it up. If Hisoka’s voice was going to bother him so much, then he’d dump it on the man’s doorstep in the morning.

The thing started purring as soon as Chikage held it in his arms, pushing its face into Chikage’s chest and staying there. It was shivering, too, and Chikage would have just gone and dumped it at Hisoka’s apartment if it weren’t for the fact that it was nearly two in the morning, and he knew Hisoka had a roommate that was already annoying enough to deal with during the light of day. He couldn’t imagine what that man was like during the early hours of the morning, when his inhibitions could be lowered so far that Chikage would have to sit through another poetry recital.

It was better to just keep the cat with him for now, honestly.

Chikage had planned to stop at the hideout before going home, but he figured the best course of action was to just go straight home. The cat didn’t stir as he stepped inside, so he dumped it on the kitchen counter and went to go change his clothes.

The rain made his work clothes difficult to peel off, and he was so soaked through that it’d just be better to take a shower than to try and get dry, so he glanced over at the kitchen to make sure the cat wasn’t dead (it was sleeping, maybe, in the same spot on the counter) and went to take a shower.

The hideout was bigger than his apartment, but Hisoka had pestered him into getting a “real place to live” almost immediately after they’d started talking again, which was honestly rich coming from someone who was quite comfortable sleeping on a sidewalk. He hadn’t argued, though, and found a place in a building where they didn’t ask for much information besides your name and how you’d pay for it, which was fantastic for someone like Chikage who had scrubbed his personal history so thoroughly it was like none of his past selves had ever existed.

Out of all the people he’d been, only April and Chikage remained. And that was all he needed to be.

That damn cat was still lying in a heap on the counter by the time Chikage was finished, so he went to go check if it was actually dead or not. He was going to start poking it, but it seemed to still be breathing. It was also still wet, which was a problem, because a hypothermic cat would be a lot more annoying than a dead cat. 

...It definitely wasn’t dead. It startled awake when Chikage turned on the hair dryer, and it would have started running if Chikage wasn’t holding it in place.

“I’m trying to _help_ you,” Chikage said when the thing started howling. “I’ll throw you back out into the street if you don’t shut up.”

Somehow, it seemed to understand him, and the rest of the blow drying went as smoothly as it could have. The thing was much softer now that it was dry, which was not something Chikage necessarily cared about, but he was kind of being forced to care, because it wouldn’t stop rubbing its face against Chikage’s hand and purring. How annoying.

“Am I supposed to feed you or something?” Chikage asked.

He would have felt stupid for asking something like that, but again, the cat seemed to understand him. It started meowing all over again, and briefly, Chikage wondered if the meowing or a poetry recital would be worse.

He started digging through his cabinets, deciding that the poems would definitely be worse. If he showed up with the cat, then the poems would be cat-themed, and he would _not_ put it past that freak to throw some “authentic, poetic, wondrous” meows into every other stanza. The only thing saving that man from a weekly argument was the fact that he seemed to be taking very good care of Hisoka, and Chikage was so grateful for that that it cancelled out every single irritating thing about him.

Eventually, he found a tin of sardines. Cats ate fish, right? He opened it and set it in front of the thing. It crouched in front of the tin, sniffed it, and looked up at Chikage like it was irritated or something.

Chikage stared right back at it. “You can have that, or you can have nothing.”

It blinked at him, but it started to eat, and Chikage figured that was all he needed to do with it for the night. He didn’t usually feel so exhausted after a job, especially a cut-and-dry “taking care of business” sort of job, but it was different this time, for whatever reason. He ended up falling asleep as soon as he got in bed.

Maybe the rain was more of a lullaby than he thought it’d be.

The morning brought a much softer rain, and the idea of going back to sleep for a few minutes was much more appealing than it had ever been in Chikage’s entire _life._ Really the only thing stopping him was the fact that he was entirely certain that he had woken up in the middle of the night with a warm weight on his chest, and that weight was now gone. How annoying. Now he’d have to actually look for the cat before dumping it on Hisoka.

He stood up and froze, seeing a figure standing in his kitchen.

Grabbing the nearest hidden weapon (a knife, tucked in between his dresser and the wall), Chikage stepped silently out of his bedroom. His typical intruder plan involved attacking first and asking questions later, but as he studied the figure, looking for a weak point, he realized that this person was most definitely sporting cat ears and a tail.

“So I’m dreaming,” Chikage said.

The figure turned around. He was wearing Chikage's clothes, which was a pretty good confirmation that this was some weird dream. “Oh, hey. Not dreaming, but thanks for last night. You seriously saved me. My name’s Itaru, by the way.”

Chikage shook his head. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“Can you tell me where your computer is first, though?” The cat—Itaru?—stepped closer to Chikage. Chikage took a step back. “I kinda have some obligations to fulfill, and if I’m gonna stay here forever, then I need a—wait a second, come back!”

Chikage was already tucking the knife away and getting back in bed while Itaru was talking. Being so sleepy made sense now. He’d only _ever_ feel like that if he was dreaming, and he was sure that he’d wake up and see that stupid cat curled up in his bed just like when December would—

“How can I convince you that you’re not dreaming? I can tell you everything that happened last night,” Itaru said. “You picked me up off the street and brought me all the way here, and then I slept forever on your counter—which is a horrible place to sleep, BTW—and then I woke up to you trying to kill me with a hairdryer. And then I ate. And then I had to sleep on top of you because you didn’t leave room for me on your bed even though we’re, like, bonded for life now.”

“Bonded for life,” Chikage repeated. “That’s ridiculous. My subconscious could have told me any of that. Goodnight.”

“Can you at least tell me your computer password? Or your phone’s passcode?” Itaru asked. “I kinda had the set-up back at my old place, and I think I’m gonna die if I don’t have Internet access soon.”

“8124.” Chikage pulled the blankets all the way over his head. _“Goodnight.”_

“Yeah, yeah, g’night,” Itaru muttered. “Why does it always start like this? Every time…”

When Chikage woke up again, the cat was fast asleep next to him. The clock told him that it was just a little later than it had been during his false awakening, but he was glad that it really _was_ a dream. It was still raining, but going back to sleep was a lot less tempting than the dream had made it feel.

He figured he’d better text Hisoka to give him some sort of warning that he was showing up. On weekends like this, where nothing was really going on in either of Chikage’s lives, it was a lot easier to drop in without much planning. A simple text would suffice this time, rather than having to spend a week or two looking for an opening in his schedule, but his phone was not where he thought he’d left it last night. It usually was close to wherever he’d fall asleep (whether it was actually in bed or at the table where he did most of his work), but it wasn’t anywhere Chikage could see.

He’d probably left it in the kitchen when he was blow drying that damn cat. He made his way out there, making sure all of his belongings were still intact. Cats were annoying, and he wouldn’t put it past this one to start knocking things over or scratching things up. Everything _looked_ fine, though.

The phone was in the kitchen, after all. Chikage hadn’t remembered plugging it in, and when he went to go open it, there was some kind of anime girl on the screen.

“Sorry, forgot to close that—”

Chikage moved without thinking, pinning whoever was behind him to the wall. After a second, he realized it was the same guy from his dream, which felt less and less like a dream the more Chikage thought about it, and _that_ was troublesome.

“Itaru,” Chikage said flatly.

“Senpai,” Itaru said in the same tone. After a moment, he added, “Sorry, I don’t know your name, so I kinda went with a placeholder, and senpai was the first thing that popped into my head. It’s less creepy than master or something.”

Chikage sighed, letting Itaru go. “Get out.”

“You can’t just kick me out! I spent, like, twenty minutes guessing my data transfer passwords on your phone.” Itaru pointed to the phone, which still had the girl on its screen. “I can’t just leave Uzuki hanging like that. Plus, we’re connected forever now.”

“I don’t care where you go, but you’re not staying here.” He grabbed Itaru by the wrist and pulled him towards the door. “Out.”

Itaru’s tail drooped. “I’ve never been rejected so fast.”

Chikage didn’t know if that was supposed to be some sort of ploy to win sympathy, but a few moments later, Itaru was gone. 

He really did not want to even think about the logistics of a cat that could turn into a person. That couldn’t be something common, right? Maybe the whole cat situation in general was just a hallucination. A hallucination made the most sense, considering there could have been anything in the air during last night’s mission. He’d taken care not to actually ingest anything given to him, whether it was from his side or not, so if there _was_ something muddling his brain, he hadn’t taken it willingly.

Still… Itaru seemed so real, all things considered. Chikage had definitely felt the cat’s warmth when he picked it up _and_ when it was sleeping on his chest. Even when he had Itaru against the wall, his skin was warm and very soft. The sad expression on his face when Chikage sent him away seemed genuine too. All of these things made the hallucination theory not as convincing as Chikage had originally thought. 

...It was probably best to talk to Hisoka about this kind of thing, wasn’t it? It wouldn’t _hurt,_ but Chikage wasn’t sure if Hisoka had any additional insight that could help. But he trusted Hisoka more than he trusted someone like July or September, so he sent Hisoka the text he was planning to send before all of this happened and started on his way.


	2. irritation

“So you found a cat.”

“Yes.”

“And you took it home.”

“Yes.”

“And you were going to dump it on me.”

“Naturally.”

“But it turned into a human.”

“It did.”

Hisoka gave Chikage a _look._

Chikage stared back.

Hisoka was the one person who knew Chikage best, but for some reason, sitting in his apartment on a Saturday afternoon made Chikage feel like they were strangers to each other. They only _had_ catch-up times because August had hammered things like that into the both of them. He was always talking about how it was important to keep in touch even if they got separated, and how they needed to know what was going on with each other so that nothing bad would happen, and how they’d only ever have each other.

Chikage thought of that last point a bit bitterly. _Obviously_ Hisoka had found someone else to rely on, too. A few someone elses, if Chikage counted the coworker Hisoka sometimes talked about (a struggling actor, age 25, also a part-time tutor and dabbled in gardening) or the man that had apparently taken him in for a few days before Hisoka had discovered this living arrangement (some kind of escort, who apparently had _no_ birth records Chikage could dig up, allegedly nice to sleep on).

At least it was true for one of them—Chikage still only had Hisoka, and he would probably only _ever_ have Hisoka.

“You sound ridiculous, April.” Hisoka paused for a moment, ripping open the bag of marshmallows Chikage had brought with him. He popped one in his mouth. “These aren’t as good as last time.”

“Be glad I brought them at all,” Chikage said, “considering it’s Saturday.”

 _Usually_ they caught up with each other on Wednesday evenings, when Hisoka’s weird roommate was off teaching a poor group of students the basics of creating masterpieces. Chikage had seriously thought it was a joke, but apparently that guy—

Chikage really needed to stop calling Homare things like _that guy._ If he was important to Hisoka, then Chikage needed to actually care.

Apparently Homare was a pretty prolific writer, even if Chikage thought he made no sense at all. He had multiple published books and more money than he knew what to do with, and Chikage had to assume he had some sort of empathetic bone in his body if he’d been so willing to take in Hisoka without a second thought.

After all, it wasn’t like things could go back to normal between Chikage and Hisoka. _Someone_ needed to make sure Hisoka wasn’t falling asleep all over the place, and if Chikage was going to continue to keep Hisoka safe, then it was absolutely necessary to keep the distance between them as far as he could without it being too impersonal.

“I believe you,” Hisoka said, breaking through Chikage’s thoughts. “But you should probably just keep the cat.”

Chikage sighed. “I don’t _want_ the cat. Whatever it is.”

“I don’t really think you have a choice,” Hisoka said. “It managed to open up your phone, right? Who knows what it saw. Better to keep an eye on it.”

Oh, Chikage _hated_ when Hisoka was right. It’d be annoying to track down the damn thing after he threw it out like that, but dealing with that would be better than dealing with whoever happened to find it next. Itaru had seemed pretty desperate for somewhere to stay, so who knew who he’d run his mouth off to next? If Chikage was lucky, some old lady would find him, and old ladies were harmless enough.

Chikage had never been lucky, though.

“I’ll go look for it, then,” Chikage said. “I’m going to dump it on you whenever it gets too annoying to deal with, though.”

“Will you?” Hisoka asked, and he stretched out on the couch (which both seemed too extravagant and not extravagant enough for what the rest of the apartment looked like—Hisoka’s roommate was way too weird).

Chikage didn’t get the chance to respond. By the time he had even vaguely thought of an answer, Hisoka was already asleep, the bag of marshmallows open on his chest. Chikage at least had the decency to close the bag to make sure the marshmallows wouldn’t get stale, and he decided he would be taking the long way home to try and look for Itaru.

It was getting to be late afternoon already, and there were way too many people on the main roads to justify looking there. Itaru seemed pretty desperate, but he _also_ seemed way too skittish to be sitting in the busiest part of town. Searching the backroads was the best course of action.

He’d found himself in these very backroads more and more often lately. The Organization had recently received a job from someone within Zahran royalty. Allegedly, the king-to-be had run away to Japan, and it was up to the Organization members based in Japan to track him down and turn him in. From what Chikage had heard from one of the higher-ups, they were promised a _very_ lavish sum of money.

He’d volunteered for the job as soon as he could. Chikage figured that, if the rumor was true, a sum of money like that could be useful. For one, he could have some of it on reserve for Hisoka if anything happened to him, or…

 _Or_ he could use it to pay off that _damn_ cat that was _not_ showing up after a couple of hours of looking. The absolute best outcome would be the reward money being enough to pay the cat to forget everything he saw _and_ have some left over to keep just in case. Tracking down a prince couldn’t be _that_ hard. Chikage had done much more for less.

Deciding to go home and restart the search tomorrow, Chikage arrived to see his neighbor—a bright boy named Sakuya, who lived a few doors down—standing near his door, holding what was most definitely a disgruntled Itaru. Chikage wanted to groan. Of _course_ Itaru would just come back. The smart thing to do would have been to check here first, but… Well, maybe the thinking Chikage had done on his walk was a bit of necessary thinking. He felt like he’d cleared his head some, at least.

“Oh!” Sakuya smiled wide as Chikage grew closer. “Is this your cat, Chikage-san? It was meowing at your door just now, so I was wondering who it might belong to!”

“I…” Chikage trailed off, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Yes, that’s my cat. I’m glad you were the one that found him, Sakuya.”

“He’s really cute!” Sakuya said, holding Itaru out for Chikage to take. “I never knew you had a cat!”

Itaru seemed _much_ more comfortable in Chikage’s arms, to the point that he started up the purring again, which was irritating on so many levels that Chikage couldn’t even begin to start counting them. “He’s new. And a pain.”

Itaru _mrrowed_ at him, and Sakuya thought that was absolutely _hilarious._ Chikage thought that Sakuya was so simple, laughing at things like cats meowing or saying something like _good morning, Chikage-san!_ every time they saw each other. He was even content to do whatever odd job he’d pick up for the day. No matter if he had on a delivery uniform or a uniform from the convenience store down the road, Sakuya always wore a smile. If Chikage hadn’t grown up learning that the world was cruel, he might have been able to call Sakuya a friend.

Chikage would probably never know if Sakuya actually was that pure all the way through or not, though, considering they were only neighbors—even _if_ Sakuya invited him out to lunch at least once a week. No matter how many times Chikage refused. 

They said their goodbyes and Chikage went inside, immediately dumping Itaru on the floor the minute the door was closed. Itaru took off running towards the bathroom, and, a moment later, he returned, in human form once again. The ears and tail were still a little jarring, but he appeared to be a normal human in all other regards. He didn’t have claws, and his teeth didn’t look like a cat’s. He also looked tired, with dark circles forming under his eyes, and Chikage couldn’t remember if they had been there before or not.

“So,” Itaru said. “Your name’s Chikage-san.”

Chikage made a face. “It sounds gross when you say it.”

“You really prefer senpai?”

...Well, Chikage didn’t really like either of those options, but he couldn’t even pick which one was the least gross. Itaru took his silence as a yes, though, and nearly snorted laughing.

“You’re weird,” Itaru said, “but I guess that’s okay.”

“You can transform into a cat, and you think I’m weird?” Chikage asked.

Itaru blinked at him. “Well, yeah. I mean, just a few minutes ago, you told Sakuya that you were _so glad_ that he found me before the storm tonight so I wouldn’t be all by myself in the streets, soaking wet, without Uzuki to—”

“I didn’t say _all_ of that.” Chikage stepped closer to Itaru, and Itaru stepped back. “Just the part about finding you.”

Itaru smirked. “And you said I was your cat.”

Another step forward. Another step back. “I also called you a pain.”

“Okay, fine,” Itaru said. “You called me a pain, but you still called me _your cat_ even though I was pretty sure I was thrown out this morning.”

One more step forward, one more step back, and Itaru was up against the wall. Closer, like this, Chikage could see that Itaru’s pupils were slitted, like a cat’s would be. His pupils were also quite large right now, which made them a bit more round, but the points at the top and bottom still showed through if Chikage looked at them close enough, and oh, was he _close._

Chikage kept his voice low. “You should be glad I’m letting you stay here after that.”

One of Itaru’s ears twitched, and he looked from Chikage’s eyes to somewhere off to the side. “Y-Yeah.”

...Way too close.

Chikage stepped back, turning and walking into the kitchen. “So, do you eat normal food? Or would you prefer another can of sardines?”

It came out a little more sarcastic than he’d meant it to, considering it was a genuine question, but Itaru didn’t seem too bothered by it. His cheeks were pink, and his tail swished back and forth, but he didn’t look upset.

“Um. I can eat real food. Pizza’s the greatest,” Itaru said. “Wait, hold on, do you really mean it when you say I can stay?”

“If I said it, then I meant it,” Chikage said, and he chose to leave out the part where Itaru was only here for monitoring purposes rather than _the goodness of Chikage’s heart_ or some other gross thing that might have come out of August’s mouth. “I can make pizza, but if that’s the only normal thing you’ll eat, then you’re getting sardines for the rest of your life.”

“I can’t afford to be picky,” was all Itaru said to that.

Dinner went on rather uneventfully. Chikage had done his best not to completely overload the pizza with spices (even though food any less spicy than scorching hot was pretty boring), but Itaru still looked like it was too much. Maybe he was a lightweight with spices like Hisoka.

Despite Itaru’s earlier behavior, he was fairly bad at making conversation. Absolutely charming as a cat (or at least as charming as a cat can be), but _horrid_ at speaking as a human. He was quick to tell Chikage all about Uzuki—who may or may not be a real person; Chikage couldn’t tell—but whenever Chikage prodded for more information, he clammed up. For now, anything about Itaru from before the moment Chikage picked him up was off limits.

Immensely irritating. Chikage figured it might take a little more time before Itaru was willing to talk. He had been hoping to dig something up to use as blackmail material should he have to, but he might end up completing the Zahran prince mission before Itaru opened up. Chikage would have to keep a close eye on Itaru for the time being, no matter which outcome came first.

For almost the rest of the night, Itaru wasn’t really interested in talking at all. He decided to take his cat form once again and curl up on the opposite end of the couch Chikage was sitting on. Chikage was fine with this; he’d spent many quiet nights in his lifetime, and this was no different. It was nice, anyway, that Itaru was quiet and nonintrusive. Less work for Chikage.

At one point during the night, Itaru had started to purr, and somehow, the place felt a little more lived in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! it means a lot to me that so many of you have been liking this fic so far!! replying is a little hard for me, but i do read and appreciate every single comment, so thank you so much!!!!
> 
> as usual, here is my [twitter](https://twitter.com/mezzosaka) if that's something you're interested in!


	3. adjusting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for your patience in this delayed chapter! a lot has happened to me in the past week or so, but we're back on track now! thanks for sticking with it!

It’d been a month.

An entire _month_ of having a weird cat-human thing, and Chikage thought the whole situation would be way more annoying than it was. It was definitely annoying, but Chikage was under the impression that Itaru would be more-cat-than-human when in reality he was more-human-than-cat.

That was fine, in Chikage’s opinion. He could deal with humans. He had trouble with cats.

For the most part, Itaru maintained a careful distance from Chikage. He disappeared in the mornings, around the same time Chikage left for his day job, but he was always waiting at the door when Chikage got home. Sometimes he was with Sakuya (who seemed to be rather fond of holding and petting Itaru, despite how Itaru always squirmed whenever he did so), but most times he was by himself, laying on the ground in front of the door.

Itaru looked so lonely like that—Chikage tried not to think about it too much, but Itaru always had a sadder look in his eyes before he noticed Chikage approaching. Chikage wasn’t even the type of person to understand a cat’s mood—that was Hisoka’s area of expertise, of course—but he felt like he could at least understand that. The look faded when Chikage got close enough, and Itaru would do that _annoying_ thing where he’d rub against Chikage’s legs (and almost trip him in the process).

Almost like Itaru was happy to see him.

Neither of them would mention it once they were inside.

Evenings were pretty quiet at first, but Itaru seemed to want to talk a little more as the days went on. Nothing personal still, but he talked a _lot_ about what he did during the day, which seemed to be a lot of sleeping and playing games. He had mentioned something about liking normal cat games well enough—like chasing birds or batting around a small toy with a bell inside—but he vastly preferred human games.

Chikage _hated_ how badly he wanted to know about how Itaru had discovered any sort of human game. His human form seemed to be some kind of secret, but how secret was it? Chikage had many, many questions, but Itaru did not seem eager to answer any of them.

Ironically, one thing Chikage appreciated immensely was the fact that Itaru did _not_ ask questions. If he found one of the weapons hidden in the apartment, he usually just stared at it for a moment and put it right back. Every time Chikage would say _I’m leaving tonight, fend for yourself for dinner,_ it was met with an _okay_ or some sort of grumbling about how he needed the phone to rank.

Speaking of which, Chikage still didn’t know how to explain to any of his higher-ups why they’d gotten six download notifications for apps with anime characters on the icons. He’d come up with some half-baked excuse about how he needed to do research because the Zahran prince was interested in that sort of thing. Chikage had no idea if that was true or not, but everyone seemed to accept it. Chikage was usually the one assigned to look into the weirder rumors anyway.

The Zahran prince… A mysterious subject indeed, and Chikage only had the vaguest lead. He wasn’t one to run from chasing vague leads, but this one came from that _damn_ cat, which made Chikage not want to investigate at all.

“One of my friends said that someone he knows saw some weirdo foreigner attracting lots of attention around one of the theatres or something,” Itaru had said one evening, offhandedly during a news report about the missing prince. “Coulda been him.”

“Your friend,” Chikage had repeated. “There are other people who know you’re a human?”

“I’m _not_ a human. It’s easier to describe in the cat language, but I’m not human.” One of Itaru’s ears had twitched in irritation. “My friend is _also_ like me. And he knows a lot more about the street, and he thinks the guy is here.”

“I see,” Chikage had said, and the conversation shifted to something so frivolous that Chikage couldn’t recall the topic.

Chikage really didn’t want to begin his investigation based off of a tip from a cat, but that was the only lead he had. He supposed checking things out around the theatre district wouldn’t _hurt._ If anything, he would at least be able to eliminate that part of the city from any further investigations.

“I’m heading out,” Chikage said, shortly after dinner one day. “Don’t scratch up the furniture.”

Itaru rolled his eyes. “You say that _every_ time, senpai, and I have never stooped so low.”

“That means it’s working,” Chikage said.

“I—What? No!” Itaru’s cheeks grew red, and Chikage had to turn away to hide his smile. He’d found that it was much too easy to push Itaru’s buttons. “It’s not working! I don’t scratch the furniture because I’m not _that_ much of a cat!”

“You’re still scared of the hairdryer.”

“That’s different. I can’t help instinct.”

“You purr when you eat something you like.”

“Again, instinct.”

“You’ve been playing with that button for the past week and a half.”

Itaru huffed, immediately dropping the button he’d been tossing around. “Okay, but do you really _never_ want to play with a cool, shiny button that you just happened to find under the couch?”

“That you found under the couch while hiding from the hairdryer,” Chikage corrected. “I can’t say that I have ever wanted to do that.”

“Alright, fine,” Itaru said, but he still didn’t look like he believed Chikage. He had picked the button back up already, turning it over and over in his hand. “Where are you going, anyway?”

“I’m going to the hairdryer factory to get a louder one. I think mine is much too quiet,” Chikage said, shouldering his bag. “See you.”

“No, seriously,” Itaru said. “You _always_ are going somewhere, and it’s super boring just sitting here by myself. So where are you going? Are you gonna be back soon?”

Chikage sighed. “You like games, don’t you?”

“I _love_ games.”

“Then, let’s make a deal,” Chikage said. “Give me that button. If you can tell me what hand it’s in, then I’ll tell you where I’m going.”

Itaru was hesitant to let the button go, but he relented, and Chikage went to work shuffling it around in his hands. Itaru studied him with a gaze that only became narrower the longer Chikage went on, and when Chikage was finished and held out his closed hands, Itaru took some time to decide.

Eventually, he tapped Chikage’s left hand. Itaru’s touch was feather-light and gentle and lingered for just a little too long—if Chikage didn’t know better, he’d read way too much into it.

Chikage opened his hand, revealing an empty palm. He glanced up at Itaru, whose face immediately fell upon seeing that his guess had been wrong. His tail, which had been swishing back and forth excitedly, now drooped low, touching the floor.

The button weighed heavy in Chikage’s back pocket.

“Sorry, you lose,” Chikage said. Guiding Itaru’s gaze towards the left, he said, “We can try again next time, though.”

“Yeah, next time,” Itaru agreed. He took the button back when Chikage offered it. “Can you at least tell me when you’re gonna be back?”

“Before the sun comes up,” Chikage said, already halfway through the door. “I promise.”

Itaru seemed satisfied with that, so Chikage closed the door behind him and went on his way.

Chikage returned home that night largely unsuccessful.

He thought he’d be more angry at Itaru for giving such a lame tip, but he was more disappointed than anything. He’d heard a few murmurs about a foreigner performing for tips, but no one said anything _about_ the foreigner. Just that he was wearing weird clothes and had a weird accent and made weird gestures, which could be _any_ foreigner for all Chikage cared.

He _did_ hear something about a certain hotel the foreigner was allegedly staying at. Chikage would have to do a little more research before wasting his time again, but at this point, he was ready to follow any lead he could get. None of his coworkers could figure anything out about this prince either, and if Chikage could get any sort of head start, then he would.

He had to. It was for Hisoka, his only family left. Giving up or letting someone get ahead of him wasn’t an option.

Paying off the cat would be a bonus.

(Distantly, he wondered if it really _was_ a good thing, but he had to remind himself that just because he had gotten used to Itaru’s presence doesn’t mean that he could let go of the fact that Itaru had probably seen things he shouldn’t have.)

Chikage approached his door only to hear footsteps coming from behind him—Sakuya’s footsteps. He knew Sakuya’s walking pattern by now: small steps, but he walked like he always knew where he was going.

“Good evening, Chikage-san!” Sakuya said, a sleepy smile forming on his face as he grew closer. He wore the uniform of a convenience store down the street; he’d been working there for a little while now. “You’re out so late.”

“I could say the same to you.” Chikage gave his best work smile, though it felt a little genuine when Sakuya laughed. “Aren’t you a little young to be working late shifts?”

Sakuya shook his head. “No, I’m out of high school already! Right now I’m just doing jobs here and there until I get my foot in the theatre door.”

Chikage raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You’re interested in acting?”

“Yeah! Lately, I’ve been going down to Veludo Way to study acting some more,” Sakuya said. “There’s lots of interesting street acts!”

A perfect opening.

“So I’ve heard,” Chikage said. “Some of my coworkers spoke about seeing a rather… loud foreigner around there. I’ve been very interested in finding out what his name is.”

Sakuya thought for a moment, a hand on his chin. “I think I know that guy, but I can’t remember right now. I can let you know tomorrow, though! If I have time before work, maybe we can get coffee or something!”

“Maybe,” Chikage agreed, but he knew that the invitation would be left untaken, just like the others had. “Goodnight, Sakuya.”

“Goodnight!” Sakuya gave a small wave and started to continue down the hall. “Say hi to your kitty for me!”

Chikage had almost expected Itaru to be waiting at the door by the time he got home, but the apartment was quiet. Itaru’s disappointed face flashed in his mind, and Chikage felt a pang of guilt run through him. On one hand, it was right for him to rig the coin game. The less Itaru knew, the better. But on the other hand…

On the other hand, Chikage almost wanted to see the face Itaru would have made if he’d won. Would his eyes sparkle? Would he purr? Would the tip of his tail tick back and forth like it did when he got a good pull in his games?

Maybe that sort of thinking wasn’t productive. Their relationship was strictly business, anyway—he didn’t wonder about those sorts of things for any of his other coworkers, so why should he be wondering about someone who is, more or less, a person Chikage just needed to keep an eye on? Not exactly a hostage, but not a random freeloader either.

Chikage decided he was being way more emotional about the situation than he needed to be, and the fact that he walked into his bedroom to see Itaru, in cat form, curled up asleep on his pillow did _not_ help. Itaru seemed to prefer falling asleep as a cat, as he hadn’t really seen Itaru asleep as a human (human-cat hybrid?) in the entire month they’d been together.

Chikage scrunched up his nose at that thought. _Been together._ Sounded too much like an actual relationship. Too much like something he could get attached to, if he wasn’t careful.

With that in mind, he proceeded to poke Itaru until he woke up with a _pbrrpt!_ sort of noise. Itaru stretched, looked up at Chikage, and didn’t move at all.

“I’m going to bed,” Chikage said. “Move.”

Itaru blinked at him, then sniffed at the pillow.

“I know you can understand me, Itaru.”

Itaru blinked at him a few more times before he actually got up off the pillow, looking as annoyed as a cat could. As if Chikage would just let him sleep on the pillow like that! He knew Itaru liked to sleep there sometimes during the day, or during nights where Chikage didn’t sleep, but really, it was _Chikage’s_ pillow. If Itaru wanted one so bad, Chikage would have to go out and get him one.

...Which seemed like it could be a good idea for tomorrow. Chikage had to head out to the shops anyway for groceries, so stopping by somewhere he could get a pillow or a cushion wouldn’t be out of his way or anything. In fact, there was a place _on_ his way he could go to, and that seemed pretty perfect. He could keep Itaru off of his pillow, _and_ he wouldn’t even have to put much thought into it.

When Chikage finally closed his eyes, Itaru had resettled, close enough for Chikage to feel his warmth but far enough away that they didn’t touch. He was quiet, for the most part, but as Chikage drifted off to sleep, he began to purr.

Teetering on the line between a dream world and his waking life, Chikage thought he was beginning to understand why people liked cats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wish i could have a catboy that eats all my food and steals all my buttons


	4. guilt

The way Sakuya had blown on his drink before sipping it made Chikage feel a little bad that he’d only accepted an invitation for coffee because he needed something. Sakuya was so pure, and Chikage’s entire being was so impure… He felt like he had tricked Sakuya, somehow.

No matter whether it was trickery or not, Chikage had extracted just enough information to deduce that the foreigner Sakuya knew was most likely the Zahran prince and most likely staying at one of the hotels just a few blocks away from the theatre district. All he needed to do now was a bit of surveillance work to figure out which one exactly before he was ready to infiltrate, and assuming the prince didn’t struggle, sending him home would be a piece of cake.

Chikage had  _ also  _ learned that Sakuya thought the rent for their apartment building was atrocious, and that there was a really relaxing part of the river he liked to go to, and that he was doing auditions in all sorts of places and if he ever got into one he would definitely reserve Chikage a ticket to go see it. Chikage couldn’t tell if he had felt warm from Sakuya’s kindheartedness or…

No, it had to have been the coffee.

Either way, he had what he needed. He’d set out to the hideout as soon as the sun set. Itaru had disappeared somewhere after dinner, and Chikage would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in knowing where Itaru had gone. After all, what sorts of things did a cat have to do?

The bag he carried with him made him look like a normal person who was going to the gym, maybe, or making a delivery. His entire look, when going to and from the hideout, was carefully calculated as to not draw any sort of suspicion—he carried himself and dressed in a way that made almost no one glance twice in his direction. That was also why night was the best time to travel; fewer people on the streets meant fewer eyes on him.

A bush rustled to Chikage’s left.

Fewer  _ visible  _ eyes, really. He’d be stupid to think that the Organization wasn’t at least trying to track him down. No amount of signal jammers specifically designed for surveillance devices gave him enough wiggle room to work without thinking about every step he took.

This time, just like all the other times, he made it into the hideout without incident, setting his bag down by the door. Chikage then scanned the perimeter of the place, taking slow steps following the walls. Each security device he’d hidden seemed to be undisturbed and in an idle state, meaning that they had detected no intruders.

Well, each security device except one.

He moved to take a closer look. His phone camera didn’t pick up the infrared light that this specific device usually gave off, and when he tugged it out of its hiding place, it seemed that the device was dead rather than triggered. Better to have a dead device than one that had gone off, and it seemed to be an easy fix. He had all the tools he needed at his desk anyway. He’d just—

He halted mid-turn, thinking he’d heard footsteps across the room.

_ Had  _ the device in his hand gone off after all?

He was about to inspect it just a little bit closer when there was a voice behind him, and he moved so quickly that he didn’t realize what he’d done until the device clattered to the ground and the intruder was pinned to the wall by their wrists.

In the first moment of pause, Chikage’s eyes met deep pink one with slitted pupils, and it made Chikage press Itaru’s wrists harder against the wall.

“What the  _ hell  _ are you doing here?” Chikage asked, through gritted teeth. He could only think about the hours Itaru had spent on his phone, and how incredibly  _ stupid  _ Chikage felt for letting him do that. “Tell me right now, or this is not going to end well for you.”

Itaru squirmed. “Hey, that hurts—”

“I have things in here that will hurt a lot more than this wall.  _ Answer me.” _

“I-I—” Itaru fumbled with his words, squeezing his eyes shut. “It’s not what it—I just wanted to—I wanted to see where you kept going!”

Chikage waited, in case Itaru had anything more to say. Silence made people talk.

A few moments passed, but Itaru hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t moved either, ears flat, and Chikage was close enough to feel Itaru’s quick breaths against his face. Chikage startled when Itaru actually  _ did  _ move, turning his face to the side.

“I’m sorry,” Itaru said, finally. “Please don’t get rid of me again. I’m sorry.”

Chikage  _ hated  _ how his chest felt at those words, but he let Itaru go and took a few steps back. Itaru stood right where he was, not letting his back leave the wall.

“I’m not going to get rid of you,” Chikage said. “But it’s dangerous for you to be here.”

Itaru rubbed one of his wrists. “Yeah, I can tell.”

That stung, but Chikage supposed Itaru was hurting worse right now. His eyes were wide, and he hissed whenever he touched a certain part of his wrist. The look in his eyes was so genuine that Chikage felt some horrible sort of feeling that sat in his stomach like a rock.

“Are you bleeding?” Chikage asked, carefully taking a step forward again. “The texture of the wall is rough enough to scratch you. I have something to—”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Will you at least let me take a look?” Chikage held his hand out. “It’s the least I can do after…”

He trailed off. How could he explain that? It was an outburst, and even if it was instinct, even Chikage knew it probably wasn’t right of him to doubt Itaru’s intentions. That was another thing August was always trying to drill into him—something about how there were a lot of bad people in the world, but there were a lot of good people, too.

Where did a cat fit into that?

Itaru, rightfully, hesitated. He spent a long time looking between the broken device on the floor and Chikage, but eventually, he placed his hand in Chikage’s. Chikage led him closer to the place he did most of his hands-on work (like fixing security devices—he needed to find some time tonight to fit that in) and sat him down gently in the chair there. Itaru sat at the very edge, his tail twitching.

Itaru  _ was  _ bleeding, though not by much. The rock in Chikage’s stomach grew to the size of a boulder, and he took out his first aid kit to start treating the scratches.

Luckily, they were all very small, and Itaru didn’t hiss or try to pull his hands away when Chikage took a closer look. Itaru had probably gotten a worse injury falling off the couch during a loud bout of thunder—it was just the fact that… that Chikage was the one who…

“I don’t think I need bandages or anything,” Itaru said. “I’ll heal fast if I lick it.”

Chikage blinked at him.

Itaru shrugged. “It’s true. Haven’t you heard? A cat’s tongue heals as much as its purr does.”

“I haven’t heard either of those sayings.”

“Probably because you  _ hate _ cats.”

The statement hung in the air like the smell of rain. Like the smell of rain on the night Chikage picked him up, and while Itaru was so eager to attach himself to Chikage back then, Chikage felt like they had never been more distant from each other than right now. 

Chikage straightened up, feeling a bit stiff as he did so. “I think it’s time for you to go home, then.”

Itaru stood, but didn’t look at him. “I don’t know how to get home from here.”

“Didn’t you follow me?”

“I hid in your bag,” he said sheepishly. He met Chikage’s eyes, though, a smile starting to form on his face. “A pretty smart move, actually. You didn’t even notice. My stealth skill’s a lot better than I thought.”

Chikage had to work  _ really  _ hard not to roll his eyes at that, but he was at least relieved that Itaru wasn’t so hurt that he couldn’t make a stupid joke like that. “I’ll take you home the same way, then.”

It wasn’t a smart idea to go back and forth between home and the hideout, but eventually, Chikage was back on track to get some mission progress done. Or he would be back on track as soon as he fixed the security device—he was fiddling with it now, trying to see exactly which part had malfunctioned. It might end up being more efficient to acquire a replacement.

Itaru hadn’t bothered to return to his human form when they got home. He’d hopped out of the bag and squeezed himself under the couch without so much as a look back towards Chikage. Chikage tried not to care, but thinking about it all snuffed out any other thought he could’ve had on the way back. He’d almost felt like the two of them were getting somewhere. Chikage didn’t keep him around to make a friend, but…

He shook his head, twisting the screwdriver a little too roughly. They were hardly friends. Indulging himself in thoughts about making friends—whether it was Itaru or someone like Sakuya—would get him nowhere. Chikage didn’t even think he’d make a good friend. Too busy with spy things. Too busy with his day job, too.

Besides, there wasn’t really any reason to be so invested in Itaru. Wasn’t he just supposed to be keeping an eye on him? Making sure he didn’t spill any of the things he’d seen during his time with Chikage? There wasn’t any need to learn more about him. He didn’t need to know what Itaru had gone through in the past or what the rest of his species(?) was like or if he’d lived with anyone else before this. He didn’t need to know any of those things at all—he just  _ wanted  _ to, and  _ that  _ was selfish.

The device broke about halfway through Chikage trying to fix it. He tossed it in the box filled with  _ other  _ things he’d harvest for parts later and decided it’d be a better use of his time to start looking through hotel databases.

Chikage returned home in the early hours of the morning, much before the sun was supposed to come up.

He’d made exactly  _ zero  _ progress on the Zahran prince mission, instead getting saddled with a bunch of  _ other  _ work the Organization deemed much more important. Boring, easy work that was somehow delegated to him rather than one of the newer members. It just didn’t take a genius to go through a few weeks’ worth of security footage.

He wanted to slam the apartment door shut behind him, but he was greeted by the scene of Itaru, back in human form and asleep on the couch.

Chikage had never seen him asleep as anything other than a cat, and Itaru… wasn’t exactly elegant when he slept. His limbs were all over the place, and his shirt rode up and exposed a sliver of skin. His tail hung over the side of the couch, and it seemed like he fell asleep in the middle of writing something down.

Such a strange sight, and it was made even stranger by the godawful feelings in his chest.

The  _ right  _ thing to do would be to get Itaru a blanket. That’s what August would have done if it’d been Hisoka on the couch. He’d kept a spare blanket around specifically because of Hisoka, too. Ugh. He never thought he’d be grateful for something originally intended for  _ Hisoka. _

The blanket was softer than the one on Chikage’s actual bed. It’d hardly been used since he got it, and when he unfolded it, it kind of smelled like the store he’d bought it from. He draped it over Itaru, a bit awkwardly. Sure, he’d seen August do the same a million and one times, but he felt awkward trying to replicate it. August always did it so lovingly, and Chikage…

He didn’t really want to think about emotions like that.

For a moment, he lingered by Itaru’s side. It was useless to say something like  _ sorry  _ to someone who was sleeping, but Chikage felt like he should say it anyway. And he felt some sort of disgusting feeling (likely called  _ fondness)  _ when Itaru had started to purr under the blanket. It was immobilizing. All of it was.

Chikage hated to admit it, but Itaru’s face was way too pretty, especially when he slept. Had he not been part-cat (was that even how it was? Chikage still hadn’t figured it out), he might have been a good recruit for the Organization. He had a face someone could trust. A face someone could fall in love with.

It took too much effort to look away and finally go to sleep.

(When he did go to sleep, though, he felt horribly empty. Like he’d gotten used to the small dip in his bed Itaru usually made. Like he  _ missed  _ him.

Gross.)

Chikage had spent the better part of the morning making sure his place didn’t look like a complete disaster. Chikage held a high standard for how spotless his apartment needed to be when someone came over, and the snack bags and soda bottles Itaru left all over the place did  _ not  _ fit the bill. He enlisted Itaru in helping out too, since most of it was  _ his _ mess.

Itaru was awful at cleaning. He worked way too slowly, and he wouldn’t step within a five foot radius of the vacuum. Every twenty minutes, he’d say  _ senpai, my IRL LP is depleted, and my Idolblaster LP is full.  _ Chikage was only just beginning to understand what any of that could mean.

The place got clean, though, just in time for Hisoka to come over. Chikage was usually the one going out to meet Hisoka, but apparently today Homare was teaching that class from his own home  _ for the extra-special inspiration benefit from being in a familiar scene and the creative juices flow and blah blah blah _ . Chikage didn’t get it. Hisoka didn’t really seem to get it either.

“Where’s your cat?” Hisoka asked, before even saying hello.

Itaru had slipped away somewhere after the cleaning was finished, saying something like  _ I don’t want to get in the way.  _ Which was really annoying, because Hisoka didn’t seem totally convinced that Itaru existed in the first place.

“He goes out during the day most of the time,” Chikage said. “But he exists. You can see the cat hair on the couch.”

Hisoka hummed but didn’t take a look. “That’s a shame. I wanted to see if he was really a human.”

Chikage rolled his eyes. “He  _ does.  _ But anyway, I need your help.”

“How come every time you buy nice marshmallows it’s because you need something?”

“Well, then. Next time I need something, I’ll buy stale marshmallows. We’ll see how that goes.”

Hisoka held the bag of marshmallows a little tighter, like Chikage was going to take them away. Which was fair, honestly, because Chikage  _ did  _ have a bag of stale marshmallows sitting somewhere in the back of a cupboard. He could have easily snatched up the nice ones and replaced them.

But he didn’t. Even if he wasn’t a nice person, he was at least trying to be nice to Hisoka.

“What do you want now?” Hisoka asked. “If it’s about the cat again, I have to consult with Arisu if you’re gonna try and give it to me.”

“It’s not the cat, but I’ll keep that in mind,” Chikage said. “It’s a… project I’m trying to tackle.”

With that, Chikage set to explaining everything he could about the mission. He conveniently left out the parts about what exactly he was going to do with the reward money, but Hisoka stood awake to listen to the whole thing. He was quiet for a while once Chikage was finished.

“So what do you want me to do?” Hisoka asked. “I’m not helping you.”

“It’s low stakes help.” Chikage shrugged. “If you can find out which hotel the prince is staying in, it’ll be a huge help. If not, I’ll figure it out myself.”

Hisoka yawned. “Fine. But I’m not going out of my way for you.”

Hisoka stayed for quite a while before he had to head home. They didn’t talk about any sort of spy business after that; instead, Hisoka seemed rather fond of trying to extract as much information about Itaru as he possibly could. He looked like he knew something Chikage didn’t, but Chikage didn’t care to try and find out exactly what that was. He was probably thought Chikage had had a change of heart and that he liked cats now after all.

Chikage didn’t think that was exactly true. He still didn’t like cats. It was the human part of Itaru that made him remotely bearable, and now… Now his feelings about Itaru were just complicated. He was supposed to just be someone Chikage was monitoring, but it was a little different now.

He still felt bad about what happened. Absolutely an annoying feeling, but he figured he might be able to get over it if he found Itaru another shiny button to play with. He just couldn’t get the look in Itaru’s eyes out of his head no matter how hard he tried.

When Hisoka left, Chikage figured he’d be alone for a little while before Itaru would come scratching at the front door. Fate had other plans for him, though. Hisoka had barely been gone for an hour before Itaru bolted out from under the couch and started rubbing his face against Chikage’s legs.

Chikage gave in for once, scratching under Itaru’s chin, before Itaru ran off again. This time he came back as a human. The tip of his tail whipped back and forth excitedly.

“I know I was saying I was gonna leave earlier, but it smelled like rain so I snuck back in through one of the windows,” Itaru said. “So I hid under the couch and Hisoka smells really nice and I heard  _ everything.” _

“Everything.”

“Everything! I want in. Helping out is the least I can do,” Itaru said. He grabbed one of Chikage’s hands in both of his. “My stealth skill is maxed out, right? I can sneak in anywhere.”

Chikage… couldn’t disagree with that. If he needed to infiltrate, who was going to say no to a cat? Cats were a good distraction too. In his cat form, Itaru looked really cute whenever he rolled onto his back—according to Sakuya, that is. Itaru could genuinely be an asset.

(His eyes were sparkling, too, slit pupils blown out wide. Right now, it was particularly hard to say no to a face like that, which Chikage found was almost infuriating. Was it because of the guilt? Chikage didn’t want to entertain any other possibilities.)

On the other hand, Chikage wasn’t fond of the idea of Itaru getting hurt again. How much could Itaru take before he’d decide to run away? Chikage didn’t want to feel guilty again, either. But Itaru looked so excited at the idea, so...

“...If there’s something to do, then you can help,” Chikage said. “Don’t count on it, though.”

“Hell yeah! It’s gonna be just like this one game where you’re hired to kill people, and you have to pick locks and stuff to get in—”

“It’s not like that at all.”

“You didn’t even let me finish, senpai. How could you know?”

“We’re not killing anyone.” Chikage sighed. “They want the prince  _ alive.” _

Itaru crossed his arms. “Then it’ll be like this  _ other  _ game where you have to hunt down a runaway prince who turns out to  _ actually  _ have amnesia, and you spend, like, fifty hours—”

“Is there a game for everything?” Chikage reached into his pocket, tossing his phone to Itaru. “Speaking of which, do your thing now when it won’t be inconvenient.”

“You mean my dailies?” Itaru asked. “There’s a text from Hisoka here, though.”

Chikage raised an eyebrow, and Itaru handed the phone back.

> **Hisoka:** you owe me.
> 
> [Hisoka has sent you a location. Open in Maps?]

Hisoka always  _ did  _ work pretty quickly.

The location showed a hotel outside of the radius Chikage was initially going to search. It was pretty out of the way, and online, it didn’t look very fancy. It seemed like the perfect place for a prince to hide out in. It was close enough to get to on foot, too.

With a confirmed location, it was impossible to let the mission sit any longer.

Chikage sighed. “You don’t happen to have any plans tomorrow night, do you, Itaru?”

Itaru nearly purred out his response, and Chikage typed out a  _ thanks  _ to Hisoka before he let Itaru have the phone back.

The evening was spent with Itaru asking a million questions while Chikage tried to make preparations for the first step of the mission. Exactly half of those questions were prefaced with some weird, convoluted explanation of a video game before he got to the  _ actual  _ question. Chikage didn’t even know where to begin with those. He was completely certain that telling Itaru that real spy work was nothing like a video game would not go over well at all.

It still felt a little wrong to involve Itaru in this. Aside from the getting hurt thing… wasn’t he planning on using the money to get rid of Itaru? There was probably something morally iffy about it, something that August would have been able to point out, something that Chikage couldn’t quite grasp.

But maybe the guilt would go away if he gave Itaru a large enough sum of money. Maybe it was the only method of getting rid of that awful feeling.

He supposed he’d find that out quite soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, guys! i had to take a little break for a while, but i'm feeling better now! again, thank you so much for all of your kind and encouraging comments on the last chapter!! i really appreciate them!!!
> 
> also, i've added chapter titles. not sure if i'll stick with them, but i like them for now!! let me know what you guys think!!
> 
> i want to give itaru a pat so bad...
> 
> catch me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/mezzosaka)!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!!
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/mezzosaka)


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